14 10 510 https://s3.amazonaws.com/atg-prod-oaas-files/beautifulspaces/original/aeb82c6bedc381790fdd66e244400ac2.png ecc51cf108c4b6f374c8144b936d65df Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Layers of the Vil'brekht Atlas Description An account of the resource Still images of the core layers of the Vil'brekht atlas sheet. Each feature in each layer has been digitized and provided with a basic symbology. (In GIS, a layer is a container for features of the same type (points, lines, polygons).) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context map-stills Original Map Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Crimea, rivers (1792) Description An account of the resource Rivers of Crimea as depicted by Vil'brekht. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kelly O'Neill https://s3.amazonaws.com/atg-prod-oaas-files/beautifulspaces/original/e93c156df8a3cc342b21d8dd8a3db1cb.png 4705cbdee33efdfb8aef2491925c5d42 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Layers of the Vil'brekht Atlas Description An account of the resource Still images of the core layers of the Vil'brekht atlas sheet. Each feature in each layer has been digitized and provided with a basic symbology. (In GIS, a layer is a container for features of the same type (points, lines, polygons).) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context map-stills Original Map Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Crimea, village locations (1792) Description An account of the resource Locations of 1,203 villages shown on the Vil'brekht atlas sheet. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kelly O'Neill Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Method Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource CURATION Description An account of the resource Curation is, among other things, a means of establishing connectivity: either by making existing connections visible, or by forging new ones. Either way, the goal is to create (some semblance of) order from chaos, coherence from disarray, meaning from memory. In simplest terms, the act of curation involves selecting, organizing, and maintaining. Here that work is done not on artifacts or artworks, but on digitized versions of material objects, on documents, and on "born-digital" content. <h3>Selectivity</h3> Perhaps one day in the distant future Beautiful Spaces will emerge as a repository for all knowledge of Crimea under Russian rule. For now though, its contents are limited. Consciously limited. I have tried to include material that 1) speaks to the significance of physical space for understanding Crimea's own identity and its place within the Russian Empire, 2) represents much larger bodies of evidence, and 3) lends itself to digital representation. In other words, if the site has a boutique feel, that is by design. The overarching goal, of course, is to distill the wonderfully complex, variable, and multifaceted story of a place - and its people - without essentializing that story (or place, or people).  <h3>Metadata</h3> The art of Beautiful Spaces, such as it is, lies in its metadata. Here metadata (data about data) is intended to facilitate citation, analysis, and contextualization. Omeka uses the Dublin Core metadata standards and I have abided by those standards whenever possible. Whenever that was not possible, I customized. In some cases that meant defining new metadata elements, in others by introducing new Item Types, etc. If I have done my job, each Item in this site should come braced with information about where I found it and where it resides, who produced it (and when), its genre, relevant contents, and location (where appropriate). A note on language: Crimea has been home to peoples of a dizzying array of ethnic and religious backgrounds, including Greeks, Armenians, Karaims, Germans, Ukrainians, and Turks. It has been (among other things) a Greek colony, a Genoese outpost, a Mongol ulus, a Tatar khanate, a Russian province, an autonomous Soviet socialist republic, an oblast within two different Soviet socialist republics, an autonomous republic within an independent Ukraine, an independent republic, and a republic of the Russian Federation. Crimea's history, therefore, has been written in many languages and dispersed throughout many archives. Its toponymy has been reinvented on several occasions (most notably in 1945, a year after the deportation of the Crimean Tatar population). Language and politics became inextricably linked long ago in Crimea and it can be difficult to write without the nagging sensation that one is somehow - albeit unintentionally - substantiating the claims of a certain set of actors by adopting a particular spelling of a placename. For the sake of consistency, I reproduce the names of places and individuals as they appear in the primary documents. Because the vast majority of my archival material is in Russian, Russian spellings occur frequently throughout the site. Whenever possible, I include the original Cyrillic along with my transliteration. I include alternate name attestations in the metadata whenever this is done in the sources (and it often is).  <h3>Collections</h3> Collections bring together Items that share a common source, purpose, or defining feature. This is not entirely unlike the work done by tags, but there are a couple of important differences between tags and collections:  <ul> <li>A tag is an attribute of a given Item. It is a piece of metadata. A Collection is a container for one or more Items.</li> <li>An Item can appear in one, and only one, Collection. By contrast, there is no limit to the number of tags assigned to a given Item. Assiging an Item to a Collection therefore privileges a particular attribute as crucial to the historical understanding of the Item.</li> <li>As site author, I can determine the order in which Items appear within a Collection and describe its organizing principles. This lends a Collection a bit more scholarly heft than a tag.</li> </ul> In sum, while a Collection is not a terribly hierarchical construct, it does function differently than the site taxonomy. Meanwhile, unlike a "Narration," a Collection relies on its content to communicate its argument or perspective. Its goal is to evoke, through an accumulation of similar pieces of evidence, an impression or perhaps an idea, to cultivate interest, or to facilitate further analysis. That said, a few Collections exist simply as pools of reference information. Beautiful Spaces Collections  <ul> <li>The Many Lives of Mirzas</li> <li>Bossoli's Album</li> <li>Demidov's Voyage</li> <li>Uvarov's Antiquities</li> <li>Dachas</li> <li>Ruins</li> <li>Estates</li> <li>Mosques</li> <li>State-Owned Gardens</li> <li>Vineyards</li> <li>Keppen's Antiquities</li> <li>Original Maps</li> <li>Source Maps</li> <li>Property Maps</li> <li>Biographical Sketches</li> <li>Archival Core</li> <li>Essential Published Sources</li> <li>Archives and Libraries</li> <li>Annotations</li> </ul> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Archival Core Description An account of the resource The fondy and delo from which the documentary core of the project are drawn. The archival materials were accessed over the course of a series of visits to Russia and Ukraine between 2003 and 2011. Archival Record Group (фонд) Russian state archives are organized into fondy (фонды), or record groups. Record groups are then organized into one or more inventories (opisi, описи). Each fond, inventory, and document within the inventory, is assigned an identification code. Repository State Archive of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource DAARK Fond 49, op.1: Tavrida Province Assembly of Noble Deputies Таврическое губерское дворянское депутатское собрание Description An account of the resource Fond 49 includes documents pertaining to the administrative concerns, appointments, elections to the noble assembly, the submission of petitions for noble status (some 273 cases), further documentation of such petitions, acceptance of such petitions (177 cases), and copies of the provincial noble registers (issued annually by the Heraldry). Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Abandoned Villages Description An account of the resource At the moment, this collection presents the contents of a list of sites abandoned in 1778 by various elements of the Christian population of the Crimean Khanate. Between July and September 1778, a grand total of 31,098 people (half the Christian population of the khanate) deserted Crimea and moved to Russian territory on the shores of the Sea of Azov. Empress Catherine II and a handful of powerful men on the ground clearly engineered this relocation, which has been described as everything from an episode of deportation to one of voluntary migration.  Catherine II's government spent 130,000 rubles in the process, but the results were priceless. The loss of thousands of Greeks, Georgians, and Armenians dealt a heavy blow to the khanate's economy (they tended lucrative gardens and orchards, cultivated vineyards, and dominated maritime trade through the Black Sea and beyond). Sahin Girey Khan's position was weakened beyond repair (already perceived as a lackey of the empress, his inability to halt the migration made clear Russia's lack of concern for the khan's ability to rule). An anxious Ottoman government deployed a fleet to Aktiar (the future site of Sevastopol) in August, only to be repulsed. Negotiations for a new peace settlement between St. Petersburg and the Porte got underway soon thereafter. The resulting Treaty of Ainali-Kavak secured the independent status of the khanate and required the removal of all Russian troops. This was no favor to the khan however. His position was tenuous at best; without the support of the empress's troops, he had precious little support. It wasn't long before the political situation in Crimea deteriorated, necessitating the return of Prince Potemkin and, by April 1783, the annexation of the khanate to Russia. <hr /> Abandoned place Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Dair Description An account of the resource 4 Greeks abandoned this area in 1778. Greek settlement Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Portrait of Antiquity Description An account of the resource Crimea was (and still is) uniquely studded with fallen slabs, old foundations, ancient walls, gravestones, and mounds of earth that have grown incrementally over the years to cover the bones of past lives. On my first visit to Sevastopol a friend explained that every good rain dislodged chards of pottery, the occasional coin, and other sundry treasures. And sure enough, when we went trekking in the mountains above Laspi later that week - keeping a sharp eye out for wild boar - I found three small bits of pottery, the edges worn smooth but the greens and blues of their surfaces still vivid. My friend chuckled and dismissed them as insignificant - the pieces dated to the fourteenth or maybe fifteenth century, after all - but I savored the extraordinary feeling of that small weight in my palm, sun-warm and heavy with historical memory. In 1837 the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg published a remarkable study On the Antiquities of the Southern Coast of Crimea and the Tavridan Mountains. The book's author, Peter Keppen, spent 5 years living in Crimea while serving as assistant to the chief of silk production (shelkovodstvo). During that time he traveled almost obsessively, collecting material for his geographical and archaeological projects. In the dedication (addressed, of course, to Tsar Nicholas I), Keppen describes Crimea as "the most charming of all the countries prospering" under Romanov rule. His book lovingly documents the location, history, and status of inscribed stones, marble columns, churches, and tombstones, but the bulk of material details defensive towers and walls. Keppen saw Crimea - in antiquity - as a territory divided between a savage, predatory north and a luxuriously beautiful south hemmed in by the Tauride (or Tavridan) mountains on one side and the Black Sea on the other. The fortified line that separated one from the other was, to him, one of the two organizing features of Crimean space (or of its antique space anyway). The second feature was sedimentation. Keppen was acutely aware of the way in which the passage of time imprinted itself on the landscape. At one point he describes finding the remains of an ancient fortification with thick walls of "wild stone" on the heights of Ayudag. "And is it surprising?" Keppen asks. "One must remember that this place has not been inhabited since 1475. And since then the spring sun has warmed the mountain tops and new growth has sprung from the depths of the earth no fewer than 360 times. 360 times over autumn storms have torn the leaves from trees and ripped the grasses, each year creating a new layer to cover any traces of human existence!"(170) Keppen would tell you that to see Crimea, one had to dig.  This collection contains all of the sites (though not all of the individual stones!) discussed in On the Antiquities of the Southern Coast. It includes 4 mausoleums, 9 Greek churches, and 58 fortifications. Each and every one was a ruin even before Keppen laid eyes on it.  Related gallery: <a href="http://dighist.fas.harvard.edu/projects/beautifulspaces/collections/show/19" target="_self">Uvarov's Antiquities</a> Related narrations: <a href="http://dighist.fas.harvard.edu/projects/beautifulspaces/collections/show/37" target="_self">Among the Ruins</a> & <a href="http://dighist.fas.harvard.edu/projects/beautifulspaces/collections/show/40" target="_self">A Monumental Inscription </a>Related source map: <a href="http://dighist.fas.harvard.edu/projects/beautifulspaces/item/898" target="_blank">Keppen's Antiquities</a><hr /> Antiquity Building or item from the past. In most contexts, an antiquity belongs to the ancient, classical, or possibly medieval period. In Crimea and in the Russian south more broadly, archaeologists and collectors used the term to describe the material legacy of the ancient Greeks, Byzantines, Genoese, Karaims, Ottomans, and Crimean Tatars who inhabited the region prior to Russian conquest. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Demir Khapu Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Petr Keppen Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Petr Keppen, O drevnostiakh IUzhnago Berega Kryma i Gor Tavricheskikh (Sankt Peterburg, 1837) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1837 Description An account of the resource Nearby at Eklis Burun there is a stone church and wall. They would have been able to communicate with Demir Khapu using signal lights. Keppen claims to have detected traces of a road through the forest and cliff walls. He also notes that in the deep forest around Demir Khapu, near the source of the Alma and Kacha rivers, "in those places furthest away from human habitation," deer still thrived. (148-149) Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource The Stanford Library copy of Keppen's work was digitized by Google Books. church forest fortification ruin wildlife Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Portrait of Antiquity Description An account of the resource Crimea was (and still is) uniquely studded with fallen slabs, old foundations, ancient walls, gravestones, and mounds of earth that have grown incrementally over the years to cover the bones of past lives. On my first visit to Sevastopol a friend explained that every good rain dislodged chards of pottery, the occasional coin, and other sundry treasures. And sure enough, when we went trekking in the mountains above Laspi later that week - keeping a sharp eye out for wild boar - I found three small bits of pottery, the edges worn smooth but the greens and blues of their surfaces still vivid. My friend chuckled and dismissed them as insignificant - the pieces dated to the fourteenth or maybe fifteenth century, after all - but I savored the extraordinary feeling of that small weight in my palm, sun-warm and heavy with historical memory. In 1837 the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg published a remarkable study On the Antiquities of the Southern Coast of Crimea and the Tavridan Mountains. The book's author, Peter Keppen, spent 5 years living in Crimea while serving as assistant to the chief of silk production (shelkovodstvo). During that time he traveled almost obsessively, collecting material for his geographical and archaeological projects. In the dedication (addressed, of course, to Tsar Nicholas I), Keppen describes Crimea as "the most charming of all the countries prospering" under Romanov rule. His book lovingly documents the location, history, and status of inscribed stones, marble columns, churches, and tombstones, but the bulk of material details defensive towers and walls. Keppen saw Crimea - in antiquity - as a territory divided between a savage, predatory north and a luxuriously beautiful south hemmed in by the Tauride (or Tavridan) mountains on one side and the Black Sea on the other. The fortified line that separated one from the other was, to him, one of the two organizing features of Crimean space (or of its antique space anyway). The second feature was sedimentation. Keppen was acutely aware of the way in which the passage of time imprinted itself on the landscape. At one point he describes finding the remains of an ancient fortification with thick walls of "wild stone" on the heights of Ayudag. "And is it surprising?" Keppen asks. "One must remember that this place has not been inhabited since 1475. And since then the spring sun has warmed the mountain tops and new growth has sprung from the depths of the earth no fewer than 360 times. 360 times over autumn storms have torn the leaves from trees and ripped the grasses, each year creating a new layer to cover any traces of human existence!"(170) Keppen would tell you that to see Crimea, one had to dig.  This collection contains all of the sites (though not all of the individual stones!) discussed in On the Antiquities of the Southern Coast. It includes 4 mausoleums, 9 Greek churches, and 58 fortifications. Each and every one was a ruin even before Keppen laid eyes on it.  Related gallery: <a href="http://dighist.fas.harvard.edu/projects/beautifulspaces/collections/show/19" target="_self">Uvarov's Antiquities</a> Related narrations: <a href="http://dighist.fas.harvard.edu/projects/beautifulspaces/collections/show/37" target="_self">Among the Ruins</a> & <a href="http://dighist.fas.harvard.edu/projects/beautifulspaces/collections/show/40" target="_self">A Monumental Inscription </a>Related source map: <a href="http://dighist.fas.harvard.edu/projects/beautifulspaces/item/898" target="_blank">Keppen's Antiquities</a><hr /> Antiquity Building or item from the past. In most contexts, an antiquity belongs to the ancient, classical, or possibly medieval period. In Crimea and in the Russian south more broadly, archaeologists and collectors used the term to describe the material legacy of the ancient Greeks, Byzantines, Genoese, Karaims, Ottomans, and Crimean Tatars who inhabited the region prior to Russian conquest. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Demir Khapu Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Petr Keppen Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Petr Keppen, O drevnostiakh IUzhnago Berega Kryma i Gor Tavricheskikh (Sankt Peterburg, 1837) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1837 Description An account of the resource The old coastal road from Alushta to Kuchuk Lambat is 9 versts and 400 sazhens. The halfway point is marked by the Demir Khapu (iron gate). From there the remains of a wall leading down to the shore are visible. Demir Khapu and Kastel Mountain both now belong to Buyuk Lambat. Numerous houses, enclosed behind what was once a fortification, are still visible as well, high up on the moutain. This is the most likely site of the place called on old maps (14th-16th centuries) Pangropoli or Nagropoli. Here among the ruins there are a great many fragments of pottery and pieces of limestone that were clearly once part of the walls. The previous owner of Kastel Mountain, indicated on the plan drawn up in 1832 that there are three churches among these ruins (the churches of Sts. John, Constantine, and Nicholas) but Keppen found no evidence of this. (The property was purchased by D.ST.Sov Kushnikov; he named the dacha in honor of his daughter: Serafimovka.) The ruins of a monastery are nearby as well. The Tatars call it Ay-Brokul (monastery of St. Prokula). Water was once fed from the Vrisi fountain past the monastery to Kastel Mountain. The elaborate pipe system was discovered when engineers began laying the new road in 1833. Keppen points out that "Vrisi" is from the Greek for "water source."(158-160) Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource The Stanford Library copy of Keppen's work was digitized by Google Books. cartographic evidence church fortification fountain Greek influence ruin water Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Portrait of Antiquity Description An account of the resource Crimea was (and still is) uniquely studded with fallen slabs, old foundations, ancient walls, gravestones, and mounds of earth that have grown incrementally over the years to cover the bones of past lives. On my first visit to Sevastopol a friend explained that every good rain dislodged chards of pottery, the occasional coin, and other sundry treasures. And sure enough, when we went trekking in the mountains above Laspi later that week - keeping a sharp eye out for wild boar - I found three small bits of pottery, the edges worn smooth but the greens and blues of their surfaces still vivid. My friend chuckled and dismissed them as insignificant - the pieces dated to the fourteenth or maybe fifteenth century, after all - but I savored the extraordinary feeling of that small weight in my palm, sun-warm and heavy with historical memory. In 1837 the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg published a remarkable study On the Antiquities of the Southern Coast of Crimea and the Tavridan Mountains. The book's author, Peter Keppen, spent 5 years living in Crimea while serving as assistant to the chief of silk production (shelkovodstvo). During that time he traveled almost obsessively, collecting material for his geographical and archaeological projects. In the dedication (addressed, of course, to Tsar Nicholas I), Keppen describes Crimea as "the most charming of all the countries prospering" under Romanov rule. His book lovingly documents the location, history, and status of inscribed stones, marble columns, churches, and tombstones, but the bulk of material details defensive towers and walls. Keppen saw Crimea - in antiquity - as a territory divided between a savage, predatory north and a luxuriously beautiful south hemmed in by the Tauride (or Tavridan) mountains on one side and the Black Sea on the other. The fortified line that separated one from the other was, to him, one of the two organizing features of Crimean space (or of its antique space anyway). The second feature was sedimentation. Keppen was acutely aware of the way in which the passage of time imprinted itself on the landscape. At one point he describes finding the remains of an ancient fortification with thick walls of "wild stone" on the heights of Ayudag. "And is it surprising?" Keppen asks. "One must remember that this place has not been inhabited since 1475. And since then the spring sun has warmed the mountain tops and new growth has sprung from the depths of the earth no fewer than 360 times. 360 times over autumn storms have torn the leaves from trees and ripped the grasses, each year creating a new layer to cover any traces of human existence!"(170) Keppen would tell you that to see Crimea, one had to dig.  This collection contains all of the sites (though not all of the individual stones!) discussed in On the Antiquities of the Southern Coast. It includes 4 mausoleums, 9 Greek churches, and 58 fortifications. Each and every one was a ruin even before Keppen laid eyes on it.  Related gallery: <a href="http://dighist.fas.harvard.edu/projects/beautifulspaces/collections/show/19" target="_self">Uvarov's Antiquities</a> Related narrations: <a href="http://dighist.fas.harvard.edu/projects/beautifulspaces/collections/show/37" target="_self">Among the Ruins</a> & <a href="http://dighist.fas.harvard.edu/projects/beautifulspaces/collections/show/40" target="_self">A Monumental Inscription </a>Related source map: <a href="http://dighist.fas.harvard.edu/projects/beautifulspaces/item/898" target="_blank">Keppen's Antiquities</a><hr /> Antiquity Building or item from the past. In most contexts, an antiquity belongs to the ancient, classical, or possibly medieval period. In Crimea and in the Russian south more broadly, archaeologists and collectors used the term to describe the material legacy of the ancient Greeks, Byzantines, Genoese, Karaims, Ottomans, and Crimean Tatars who inhabited the region prior to Russian conquest. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Demir Khapu / Tash Duvar Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Petr Keppen Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Petr Keppen, O drevnostiakh IUzhnago Berega Kryma i Gor Tavricheskikh (Sankt Peterburg, 1837) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1837 Description An account of the resource In the yaila northwest of Arpat, Demir Khapu is a two-hour walk from Uskiut. Nearly two hours further along the road one comes to Tash Duvar and the remains of a long defensive wall. Tash Duvar is owned by Murat Mirza, son of Megmetsha Argin. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource The Stanford Library copy of Keppen's work was digitized by Google Books. fortification ruin Tatar property travel time yaila Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Estates Description An account of the resource From the 1830s onward Crimea was a favored venue for prominent displays of wealth by powerful members of the ruling elite generally associated with the gulf-side imperial capital far away to the north. Rather than recreate the architecture of St. Petersburg on the Black Sea, many of those well-connected and well-to-do landowners made a conscious effort to accentuate the foreignness – perhaps even the exotic nature – of Crimea in the architecture of their estates and palaces. For some, the distinctiveness of the landscape was rooted in its Greek legacy. Russians and foreigners alike, inspired by the classical revival in architecture sweeping across Europe, pointed excitedly to the tangible residue of this legacy which suddenly placed Tavrida on the intellectual and cultural map of western civilization. Grecian elements therefore dominated many early nineteenth-century buildings. Other landowners – particularly the most wealthy and well-connected – played up the more exotic “Asiatic” legacy of Tavrida in their domestic landscapes. These nobles found it not just aesthetically pleasing but also empowering to incorporate elements of the local architectural tradition and natural landscape. In this they were no different than imperial elites elsewhere. In Russia, private residences were of particular importance to the articulation of the imperial presence in the borderland precisely because they were anything but private. Country houses and palaces were essentially public spaces, meant to attract the gaze of peers and peasants alike. The dignitaries, travelers and other visitors who penned detailed descriptions of Alupka, Gaspra, and Gurzuf inscribed these structures into the symbolic landscape of the province, but even on their own, the usad’by served as daily reminders of the reality of imperial authority to those who inhabited neighboring villages and worked in estate orchards and vineyards. Of course, not all landowners were wealthy enough to build palaces or manor houses that could accommodate such lavish public spectacles. The majority of those who did command that level of wealth were not provincial nobles, but members of the ruling elite who owned estates but neither registered in the Tavrida noble register nor otherwise participated in daily life in the province. The bulk of Tavrida’s registered nobles were not part of the ruling elite, nor were they distinguished for their wealth. In 1789 Governor Zhegulin pointed out to Potemkin that many of the (non-Tatar) officials in Tavrida were quite small-time Little Russian nobles or Polish szlachta who owned between five and thirty-five serfs. The low population density of the province together with the freedom of the native population from serfdom prevented landowners from accumulating wealth in the form of souls until well into the nineteenth century. However, most nobles (96% of non-Tatars and 88% of mirzas) in 1815 for example did own land from which they presumably drew sufficient income to maintain an honorable lifestyle. Of the 225 nobles registered between 1830 and 1853 for whom I have property data, 65% owned either arable or pasture land, and another 12% owned land in the form of orchards, gardens or vineyards. The remaining 23% owned houses and/or household servants and peasants, but did not mention landholding in their entries. Among ennobled mirzas, 96% owned land of some kind. Interestingly enough, they enjoyed average holdings three times larger than those of others, and a number of mirzas accumulated (or maintained) considerable annual incomes.<hr /> Elite residence Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Demirdzhi Description An account of the resource Kattı Giray’s estate at Demirdzhi of roughly 1,000 desiatinas included a manor house. He also owned “a beautiful seaside villa” and vineyard near Artek. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Kırımlı, 98 mirza southern coast Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gardens Description An account of the resource This collection describes 43 garden sites considered to be the property of the Russian state in the 1790s. The gardens described here contain 821 individually documented parcels. Together they covered 351 acres along the prime southern coast and river valleys, and contained nearly 20,000 trees (19,193, to be precise).  17 species are documented in the reports: plum (слив), hazelnut (фундук), walnut (волошские орехи), pear (груш), European pear (дулина), rowan (рябин), apple (яблон), cherry (черешен), cherry (вишне), aiva (айва), mulberry (щелковиц), olive (маслин), fig (инжер), date (фурма), medlar (мушмоль), peach (персик), and almond (миндал). The collection is based on a set of reports "<a href="http://dighist.fas.harvard.edu/projects/beautifulspaces/items/show/939" target="_blank">on the composition of the lands and gardens of Tavrida Province held as quitrent properties</a>" (freehold properties in return for which lessees paid a land tax) compiled between 1791 and 1794. <hr /> Garden location Ethnicity of owner Greek Arrangement gardens: 1, parcels: 2 Area 2405 square sazhens (2.71 acres) Trees 93 Species present plum, walnut, pear, apple, cherry, aiva Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Demirdzhi Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://dighist.fas.harvard.edu/projects/beautifulspaces/items/show/939" target="_blank">Report on state-owned fruit gardens and vineyards along the Belbek, Kacha, and Alma rivers</a> aiva apple cherry gardens: state-owned Greek property pear plum southern coast walnut